There are nearly 1 million uninsured drivers menacing Britain’s roads which equal 1 in 20 motorists. Insurers and police say that it is rife on all social levels. Footballer John Barnes was caught driving on the M6 without insurance.
It is believed that if the penance for no insurance was more prohibitive maybe people would think carefully before taking the risk. The deprivation caused in terms of lives as well as money is shocking. Zurich have revealed that due to uninsured drivers there are around 200 deaths per year, they are six times more likely to drive an unsafe car and ten times more likely to have a drink and drive.
The compensation and medical bills of those involved in an incident with an uninsured driver, stand at the present time, at £500m per year. Malcolm Tarling from the Association of British Insurers says It s a huge expense to the industry. It adds around £40 a year on average to the premiums of honest motorists.
Mr Tarling explained what happens if you have an incident with an uninsured driver. First thing to realise is if you have fully comprehensive insurance you should be OK, as you can claim from your insurer. If you have third party, fire and theft cover can be less straight forward “These people will not be able to claim from their insurer. They will, though, be able to submit a claim to the Motor Insurers Bureau s UK Guarantee Fund for bodily harm and damage to their vehicle, he said. But be sure that you have ascertained that the driver is not insured and you have their details otherwise you might not be able to claim from the MIB.
Since the 1940’s the MIB has paid out just short of £2bn in compensation up to now and every year this sum increases. Samantha Parker, from Swindon was hit by a stolen car in 2003 and discovered that this last resort fund is not at all perfect. As I pulled away from lights on my way home from a friend s house, a car being chased by police came out of a one way street and hit me, writing off my car. Obviously, the driver of the stolen car was uninsured, so my insurance would not cover me.
So Ms Parker went to the MIB for help: The claim took nearly a year to process and there was an automatic excess of £500. As a result, I only got back around £900 from my claim.
Her claim was helped by legal cover she took out with her car insurance policy enabling her to claim against that: Being able to employ a solicitor took a lot of the hassle out of things. Legal cover only costs £20 to £30 a year and it s really worth having.
Often the honest motorists are left with extra costs as a result of uninsured drivers, and it can go on for years to come as higher policy excesses and premiums. It can mean you lose your no claims discount. It may be a good idea, therefore to take out protected no claims, which costs roughly the equivalent of 10 per cent of your premium, said Mr Tarling.
Direct Line are one of the first insurers to show consideration to those hit by uninsured drivers and have taken the stance to not remove no claims discount or increase excesses if it happens to you.
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